OK Blue,
I just got an urge and bought a Towlite Hilo travel trailer.
Now I know some of you have to be into the camping/RV scene so what I am looking for are campgrounds close to mainline action.
By close I mean within 200 yards so you can set up camp and walk to the tracks.
West Virginia and Virgina will be my first adventure, probably in the spring. They also have to be pet friendly as the two furkids go everywhere we go.
One I know of and really liked is in Bowmanville Ontario. We spent a week there in 1987 and I loved seeing all the trains. You even had to cross the tracks to enter the campground. I don't know about pet friendly though because we didn't have a dog traveling with us at that time.
If you know f some please let us know.
Charlie

Camping allowed at Crossroads Park in Deshler, Ohio. CSX runs approximately 75 trains by every 24 hours and you can camp 100 feet from the tracks.

Charlie:
Yemassee, SC has a caboose and trolley on the property, but the tracks aren't that close.
There's one in GA that's on the old W&A tracks.
And somewhere along I75 there's one between the highway and a set of tracks that you have to cross to get into the campground.
Port Huron, MI KOA has a 15" gauge train, but the tracks at the edge of the camp are now a trail and the cabeese have disappeared.
Cheyanne, WY has a view of the tracks but the trains look mighty small.
Salt Lake City is building a street car line from downtown to the KOA. -- I heard 2014 for completion.
Pomona Fairgrounds camp apparently has a railroad museum across the street -- wasn't open any of the weekends we were there.

Enjoy your camping.

Hey , maybe you'll get lucky and camp next to "cousin Eddy " of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation



Terry

railohio Wrote:Camping allowed at Crossroads Park in Deshler, Ohio. CSX runs approximately 75 trains by every 24 hours and you can camp 100 feet from the tracks.

Now that sounds like what I'm looking for....Thanks!!!
Charlie

If you wait long enough to come to Arizona, I've been reading where the state is negotiating to sell land across from the Pacacho Peak state park for a six-mile long freight yard. That should be something to visit. It'll parallel I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson. This kind of tells you that the railroads are here to stay for awhile.

ezdays Wrote:If you wait long enough to come to Arizona, I've been reading where the state is negotiating to sell land across from the Pacacho Peak state park for a six-mile long freight yard. That should be something to visit. It'll parallel I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson. This kind of tells you that the railroads are here to stay for awhile.

Well Don, My Sister in law is in Mesa and has been in that area for 25 years so that is one of the stops we plan next year or so.
Charlie

Charlie B Wrote:Well Don, My Sister in law is in Mesa and has been in that area for 25 years so that is one of the stops we plan next year or so.
Charlie

Well Charlie, knowing the government, they may have all the paperwork finished by then. Union Pacific could take another year to finish, maybe more. They're talking 74 tracks, the biggest yard between Texas and California. I"d enjoy just going down there and watch them build it.

And yeah, there is at least one camp grounds near there. We;re talking maybe 50 miles from your SIL's house.

50 miles to you guys is nothing the way she talks. I think they drive that far for a coffee
Charlie

Charlie B Wrote:50 miles to you guys is nothing the way she talks. I think they drive that far for a coffee
Charlie

Yup, my wife and I drive 40 miles up to Wickenburg to get a good Mexican dinner, and some 45 miles to N Phoenix just for some Chompie's NY style bagels. Sometimes we drive 125 miles one way up to Sedona for the day, just to look around and stop off at the chapel up in the red rocks, and visit our favorite Italian restaurant. This is the way it's been around here for as long as I can remember. When I was going to ASU in Tempe back in the 50's, there was nothing between it and Phoenix but desert and a stinky cattle yard. There was little between Tempe and Mesa either. Now that these cities are all joined, people still drive rather than take a chance with public transportation, when there is any.

ezdays Wrote:

Charlie B Wrote:50 miles to you guys is nothing the way she talks. I think they drive that far for a coffee
Charlie

people still drive rather than take a chance with public transportation, when there is any.

The LAST time we were in Chicago we were in 6 lanes of bumper to bumper with 6 lanes going the other way, bumper to bumper, and 8 car light rail trains passing us (like we were standing still) every 10 minutes. most of them were empty. When I lived there in the 60's you couldn't kick your way on most of the trains. Folks just get used to the convenience of their cars.

Charlie B Wrote:The LAST time we were in Chicago we were in 6 lanes of bumper to bumper with 6 lanes going the other way, bumper to bumper, and 8 car light rail trains passing us (like we were standing still) every 10 minutes. most of them were empty. When I lived there in the 60's you couldn't kick your way on most of the trains. Folks just get used to the convenience of their cars.

Yeah, and when you're spread out like we are here, a car is no longer a luxury. I'm surprised with the sprawl and the space in between. I was driving up on the Carefree Highway (yup, the one in the song), and I'm passing a sign, "welcome to Peoria". Hey, Peoria is like, 20 miles to the south, and there's nothing but raw desert up this way. Phoenix goes clear up to Anthem, about 40 miles from downtown, with lots of open desert and a lot of subdivisions in between.

If you bring your trailer over to the UK Charlie, I can point a couple of good sites out

Cheers,

Kev

Kev, there isn't a chance of that happenng. I took my last flight in 1983, and I remember what happened to the Titanic..
Charlie

A couple more:
Williams, AZ -- Grand Canyon Rly Campground. Right by Santa Fe line (not the main one, but a branch) plus the GCR terminus.
Harborfront CG, Monroe MI -- may be over 200 yds but 2 major lines that run south from Detroit.

Wales West CG in Alabama -- (Fairhope/Foley area) -- has own railway.

I can also think of a large number where you cam hear trains but not see them.